Combining the poignancy of Tuesdays with Morrie with the candid humor of David Sedaris, Colin McEnroe delivers a universally appealing story of male identity and mortality.

Starting with the death of his father and chronicling backwards, Colin McEnroe examines their relationship in order to understand his dad, not just as a father, but as a man. Now a father himself, McEnroe articulates, in a voice both sensitive and startling, the experiences of "the sandwich generation," Baby Boomers facing the dual task of caring for their own children and their aging parents. Moving without being maudlin, MY FATHER'S FOOTPRINTS reveals the profound lessons behind one of today's most challenging issues: losing a parent while being a parent.

Despite calls for a renewal of family values and the proliferation of corporate work-family programs, the goal of achieving a healthy balance between the demands of work and a satisfying family life remains elusive. Dr. Parasuraman, Dr. Greenhaus, and the contributors to this well-balanced and thoughtful volume examine this increasingly prevalent social dilemma from a stakeholder perspective. They see work-family tensions as a multifaceted social issue, and they examine the nature and consequences of these tensions from the viewpoints of individuals, employers, consultants, counseling professionals, and other service providers. Their inclusion of legal, cultural, international, and research perspectives and recognition of the unique concerns of vulnerable groups, such as nonexempt employees and ethnic minorities, add to the breadth of coverage. Academics in the social and behavioral sciences, executive decision-makers in government and business, human resource professionals, and employed men and women interested in achieving work-life balance will find this volume insightful, stimulating, and useful.

The editors have arranged their book into five parts and 21 chapters. Part I provides a broad overview of the environmental factors impacting work and family. It then identifies the critical issues and challenges facing individuals, families, and employees in managing the complex interdependencies between work and family roles. In Part II they provide a view of the issues from the vantage point of specific stakeholders. Part III concentrates on the role of culture in shaping ideology, policies, and practices concerning work and family and the relationships among them. Part IV examines the impact of career development programs on employees and their families. It also discusses the effectiveness of alternative career tracks, various usages of work-family benefits by women and men, and the roles employers and employees can play in legitimizing alternative career paths. Part V concludes the book by examining the cultural barriers to achieving more effective integration of work and family, and by analyzing the appropriate role of key stakeholders in addressing work-family problems.

Imagine standing in a child's room at your mid-point of life, staring into a mirror of truth and realizing that the child you last saw through that looking glass now has thinning hair, bulging love handles, and an aching back. You may be halfway through life, but are you half-through living?
Robin T.W. Yuan attacks mid-life and its fears with vigor, humor, and truth in a book of insightful and entertaining vignettes about foggy memory, failing vision, fading dreams, and an aging physique. Sometimes sweet, sometimes poignant, occasionally biting, but always truthful, Cheer Up . . . You're Only Half Dead is written with the eyes of a child, the mind of a philosopher, the artistry of a plastic surgeon, the grace of an accomplished violinist, and the insight of an enlightened middle-ager. Readers young, old, and in-between will nod with understanding and laugh with familiarity, while being encouraged to squeeze all they can out of life.

Managing social relationships for childless couples in pro-natalist societies can be a difficult art to master, and may even become an issue of belonging for both men and women. With ethnographic research gathered from two IVF clinics and in two villages in northwestern Turkey, this book explores infertility and assisted reproductive technologies within a secular Muslim population. Goeknar investigates the experience of infertility through various perspectives, such as the importance of having a child for women, the mediating role of religion, the power dynamics in same-gender relationships, and the impact of manhood ideologies on the decision for - or against - having IVF.

Paternity and fatherhood: is there more than an etymological difference between these two apparently synonymous terms? What do we understand by "paternity" and "fatherhood?" These crucial questions lie at the heart of this collection of essays selected from the humanities and social sciences. As an anthropological document, this book offers compelling evidence to support the premise that there is a profound difference between the biological reality of paternity and the cultural construct of fatherhood. At the same time, the theories of Freud and Lacan provide a background for many of the author's critical explorations of a kaleidoscope of literary texts, legal documents, case histories, painting and letters. Through their discussion of the relations, attitudes, emotions and values generated by the paternity/fatherhood distinction, the essays in this collection broaden our understanding of how dichotomy has evolved in Western societies and offer insights into its manifestations in some post-colonial cultures.

The debate on the origins of modern gender norms continues unabated across the academic disciplines. This book adds an important and hitherto neglected dimension. Focusing on rural life and its values, the author argues that the modern ideal of separate spheres originated in the era of the Enlightenment. Prior to the eighteenth century, cultural norms prescribed active, interdependent economic roles for both women and men. Enlightenment economists transformed these gender paradigms as they postulated a market exchange system directed exclusively by men. By the early nineteenth century, the emerging bourgeois value system affirmed the new civil society and the market place as exclusively male realms. These standards defined women's options largely as marriage and motherhood.

Fertility rates vary considerably across and within societies, and over time. Over the last three decades, social demographers have made remarkable progress in documenting these axes of variation, but theoretical models to explain family change and variation have lagged behind. At the same time, our sister disciplines-from cultural anthropology to social psychology to cognitive science and beyond-have made dramatic strides in understanding how social action works, and how bodies, brains, cultural contexts, and structural conditions are coordinated in that process. "Understanding Family Change and Variation: Toward a Theory of Conjunctural Action" argues that social demography must be reintegrated into the core of theory and research about the processes and mechanisms of social action, and proposes a framework through which that reintegration can occur. This framework posits that material and schematic structures profoundly shape the occurrence, frequency, and context of the vital events that constitute the object of social demography. Fertility and family behaviors are best understood as a function not just of individual traits, but of the structured contexts in which behavior occurs. This approach upends many assumptions in social demography, encouraging demographers to embrace the endogeneity of social life and to move beyond fruitless debates of structure versus culture, of agency versus structure, or of biology versus society.

First published in 1901, this title lends insight into the position of English women in the workforce at the turn of the twentieth century. The conditions of women changed rapidly throughout the 1800s, leading to more varied choices in terms of career and lifestyle. However, this title also reveals the limited status of women even one hundred years ago, as Lyttleton urges that women must decide between a family life and a career. Women and Their Work will be of interest to students of Sociology, Women's History, and Gender Studies.

This fascinating book illustrates the importance of analyzing sexuality by examining ways in which stepping outside heterosexuality necessitates and facilitates long-term economic independence. Based on a life-history study, the book charts key stages in the lives of non-heterosexual women, including their experiences of gendering in childhood and their responses to 'the culture of romantic heterosexuality'. In particular it documents the impact of 'coming' out on their lives and the way sexuality has affected their approach both to intimate relationships and paid work.

" This book] brings together high-quality papers from many different fields: endocrinology, evolutionary biology, demography, economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology... It can be seen as a practical tool for researchers in the field, and it provides a large amount of data across a wide range of populations and helps to find a common ground between theories emerging from different fields. It is the kind of book that will never end up in the last dusty row of your shelves because you will continually refer to it, picking up here and there empirical and theoretical data for the next decades." BioOne. Research Evolved

From a comparative perspective, human life histories are unique and raising offspring is unusually costly: humans have relatively short birth intervals compared to other apes, childhood is long, mothers care simultaneously for many dependent children (other apes raise one offspring at a time), infant mortality is high in natural fertility/mortality populations, and human females have a long post-reproductive lifespan. These features conspire to make child raising very burdensome. Mothers frequently defray these costs with paternal help (not usual in other ape species), although this contribution is not always enough. Grandmothers, elder siblings, paid allocarers, or society as a whole, help to defray the costs of childcare, both in our evolutionary past and now. Studying offspring care in a various human societies, and other mammalian species, a wide range of specialists such as anthropologists, psychologists, animal behaviorists, evolutionary ecologists, economists and sociologists, have contributed to this volume, offering new insights into and a better understanding of one of the key areas of human society.

Gillian Bentley is a biological anthropologist and reproductive ecologist and a Royal Society Research Fellow at University College London. Her prior work focused on explaining why different human populations occupying a range of environments have varying levels of reproductive hormones. She now directs projects that interface with reproduction and reproductive health, working with the migrant Bangladeshi community in London. Recent publications include "Infertility in the Modern World: Present and Future Prospects, " edited with C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Ruth Mace is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at University College London. She works on the evolutionary ecology of social and subsistence systems. Particular interests include parental investment, mainly in African populations but also in the UK, and also macro-evolutionary studies on the evolution of cultural diversity. Recent publications include "The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: A Phylogenetic Approach, " edited with C. Holden and S. Shennan (UCL Press, 2005).

"The New Uprooted" explores the relationship between the single mother and her social and physical environments. Mulroy examines how demographically diverse single mothers (in terms of race, class, marital status, urban or suburban location, educational level, and employment status) experience dual roles as sole family breadwinner and sole resident parent in the 1990s environment of scarce resources. Families headed by single mothers have become a unit of social concern not only because they represent a changing family form, but because their economic marginality threatens a downward spiral toward the instability of urban poverty. The mothers' key issues are the high cost of housing their families in relation to low wages, irregular or nonpayment of child support, public welfare benefit levels, and the effects of domestic violence.

The book is based on multi-method research that includes analyses of the most recent census data relative to the changing composition of families and households, economic trends, and employment; analysis of recent empirical studies on increased neighborhood poverty and urban restructuring; and field research on the coping strategies of 73 single mothers. It will be of interest to public policymakers, scholars, and students of the contemporary American family, housing, and welfare issues.

This book theorizes five youth television series: "Dawson""'s Creek, Freaks and Geeks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, " and" Smallville "from a psychoanalytic perspective drawing on the meeting ground between Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari. jagodzinski develops the notion of self-refleXivity (as distinct from self-reflection and self reflexion) to identify that aspect of the inhuman within ourselves, namely the order of the drives that these series explore. It is argued that the narratology of the post-Gothic form of "Buffy, Roswell, "and" Smallville" is the structure of paranoid schizophrenia. A hyper-self-reflexivity informs "Dawson's Creek," while "Freaks and Greeks" deals with ethical dilemmas.

Problems associated with work-family conflict do not belong to individual families alone, but have a major social and economic impact on the greater community. This scenario also holds true across sub-Saharan Africa, as nations enter the global economy and rising numbers of women enter the workforce.

One of the first resources to focus on this region, "Work-Family Interface in Sub-Saharan Africa" probes rarely-studied dimensions of conflict between paid employment and family responsibilities. It balances theoretical background, empirical findings, and current and emerging interventions for an insightful and practical review of ongoing issues affecting working women with families. Coverage contrasts concepts of work and family between the developing world and the West, and related social concerns such as gender expectations and sexual harassment are examined in the work context. The book describes a range of family strategies for resolving work-family friction, and chapters end with policy recommendations as first steps toward remedying longstanding challenges. Among the thought-provoking dispatches: Ghana: Managing work and family demandsNigeria: Strain-based family interference with workBotswana: The social impact of job transfer policy on dual-career familiesKenya: The role of household help in work-family balanceSouth Africa: State measures toward work-care integrationZambia: The quest for a family policy

As evinced by these chapters, progress is gradual and far from uniform. As a guide for future study and future policy, "Work-Family Interface in Sub-Saharan Africa" is a substantial reference for sociologists, public health professionals, public and social policymakers, and administrators."

This compilation of the best thinking about adoption by both historical and current authorities reveals a vital, ever-changing practice affecting the lives of millions of people around the globe. The ancient practice of adoption has changed significantly through history. In colonial America, parents adopted out their unwanted children-those who were "rude, stubborn, and unruly"-to other families. Today, Americans go abroad looking for children to adopt, and have adopted more than a quarter million internationally. Adoption: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition not only traces the development of expert thinking about adoption, it also looks at both sides of the latest controversial issues. Should adoptions be open or closed? Should the government regulate adoptions more closely-or less? This updated second edition offers an international perspective with a new chapter on how countries outside the United States provide adoption services. This work is an indispensable resource for those thinking about adoption or researching its history. Primary sources include testimony from hearings and court cases, and case studies explain and illuminate concepts A chronology of events and milestones includes coverage from the time of Moses to the present day

Originally published in 1914, this text describes L.T. Headland and his wife's experience in China in the early twentieth century. With a focus on home life this study explores issues such as children, marriage and education as well as food, religion and concubinage as well as presenting anecdotes and personal stories from the families Headland interacted with. This title will be of interest to students of Asian Studies and Anthropology.

When gay couples become parents, they face a host of questions and issues that their straight counterparts may never have to consider. How important is it for each partner to have a biological tie to their child? How will they become parents: will they pursue surrogacy, or will they adopt? Will both partners legally be able to adopt their child? Will they have to hide their relationship to speed up the adoption process? Will one partner be the primary breadwinner? And how will their lives change, now that the presence of a child has made their relationship visible to the rest of the world? In Gay Dads: Transitions to Adoptive Fatherhood, Abbie E. Goldberg examines the ways in which gay fathers approach and negotiate parenthood when they adopt. Drawing on empirical data from her in-depth interviews with 70 gay men, Goldberg analyzes how gay dads interact with competing ideals of fatherhood and masculinity, alternately pioneering and accommodating heteronormative "parenthood culture." The first study of gay men's transitions to fatherhood, this work will appeal to a wide range of readers, from those in the social sciences to social work to legal studies, as well as to gay-adoptive parent families themselves.

This book explores research on processes that influence family-school partnerships in support of student learning and education. It highlights research related to culture, contexts, and development as families and schools work together to promote smooth transitions and academic achievement. The volume discusses research related to family and community engagement with schools, and describes the various mechanisms by which partnerships may support students' long-term developmental outcomes and success beyond school. Each chapter sets forth a forward-thinking research agenda aimed at further understanding and implementing the processes by which family-school partnerships promote children's healthy adjustment. In addition to examining critical and emerging issues, this unique book also provides robust strategies, data, and rationales across the following areas: Cultural processes and the connections among home, school, and community. Family-school relationships during adolescence. Achievement mediators of family engagement in children's education. Continuities and consistencies across home and school systems. Uncovering processes and pathways in family-school research. Strengthening networks and attachments to promote child development. Processes and Pathways of Family-School Partnerships Across Development is a must-have resource for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, family studies, developmental psychology, sociology of education, and other interrelated disciplines.

This comprehensive reference views China's welfare system through a cultural-historical lens to integrate its complex story into the global study of welfare. Focusing on the mainland's vast, mainly rural population and its long and complicated history, it analyzes rural welfare from the imperial dynasties, to the socialist planned economy under Mao Zedong, to its recent history in the current market economy. Findings from government and academics explore salient topics such as urban/rural inequity, the situation of migrant workers, change of social security system, the community development of the countryside, and the relationships of rural welfare policy with social structure, cultural background, economic development and political institution. This broad and deep knowledge gives readers the tools necessary for understanding the relationship of China's unique and nuanced past to its prominent status in the evolving global economy. Among the book's topics: < Welfare studies in the West and China Welfare practice in the period of 1840-1949 Creation of the Socialist Welfare System: socialist reformation and construction The Social Security system in rural China, 1979-1998 Re-collectivized process in welfare and economy Welfare's political contexts: rural grass-roots democracy With its accessible, up-to-date coverage and holistic approach to its subject, Rural Welfare in China will find a diverse interested audience, including sociologists, political economists, and social policymakers.

In this innovative study of the South Carolina Low Country, author Stephanie McCurry explores the place of the yeomanry in plantation society--the complex web of domestic and public relations within which they were enmeshed, and the contradictory politics of slave society by which that class of small farmers extracted the privileges of masterhood from the region's powerful planters. Insisting on the centrality of women as historical actors and gender as a category of analysis, this work shows how the fateful political choices made by the low-country yeomanry were rooted in the politics of the household, particularly in the customary relations of power male heads of independent households assumed over their dependents, whether slaves or free women and children. Such masterly prerogatives, practiced in the domestic sphere and redeemed in the public, explain the yeomanry's deep commitment to slavery and, ultimately, their ardent embrace of secession.
By placing the yeomanry in the center of the drama, McCurry offers a significant reinterpretation of this volatile society on the road to Civil War. Through careful and creative use of a wide variety of archival sources, she brings vividly to life the small worlds of yeoman households, and the larger world of the South Carolina Low Country, the plantation South, and nineteenth-century America.

Accounting for Affection examines the multifaceted nature of early modern motherhood by focusing on the ideas and strategies of Roman aristocratic mothers during familial conflict. Illuminating new approaches to the maternal and the familial employed by such women, it demonstrates how interventions gained increasing favor in early modern Rome.

Although interest in mother/daughter relationships has led to a plethora of books on the subject, these books all consider situations found in the mainstream white population. In this book, relationships between mothers and daughters from 13 ethnic groups, including Asian, Black, Latino, and Native American, are explored. The voices of 17 highly successful mothers, in different stages of their life, and their 19 daughters are heard. The reader will learn of their values, intergenerational relationships, and the mother's influence as a role model. The research that confirms and validates these women's life stories is discussed. The book provides valuable insight into the issues facing minority women in the United States.

Although the women in these case studies come from diverse multi-ethnic backgrounds, they have all faced traditional and ethnic barriers and been able to achieve success, becoming role models for their daughters. The book is both a significant contribution to women's and ethnic studies, social sciences and education.

Italian Family Matters examines the debates and political priorities that led to significant changes in the law and its relation to women and the family in postwar Italy. Informed by the feminist debates on these issues, it shows that both the need for and the limits to the demand for equality before the law can be used to show what a different ordering of the relations between the sexes could mean.

For many years, government policy has associated young people 'being NEET' (Not in Education, Employment or Training) with educational underachievement, worklessness, generational poverty, poor health, antisocial behaviour, and reduced life expectancies. Researchers and policymakers continue to debate whether young people become NEET as a result of their own choices (i.e. their personal agency), or as a result of external factors (i.e. social, political and economic structures). Most recognise that the truth is somewhere between the two, but a clear understanding of how each interacts in causing young people to become NEET has so far been elusive, making the development of effective policy and practice problematic. Agency, Structure and the NEET Policy Problem makes headway against this problem through an original approach that draws on social cognitive theory and the lived experiences of young people themselves. Investigating the lives of NEET young people between the ages of 17-21 in London, this book elucidates the interactions between agency and structure that lead to them becoming NEET, and in doing so, offers a new perspective on the phenomenon. It offers a valuable critique of existing policy, providing both breadth and detail on the factors affecting the trajectories of young people in their transitions to continued education, training, or employment. It offers a way forward for all who are interested in developing, supporting and implementing a revitalised approach to NEET policy and practice, and a framework around which a coherent multidisciplinary approach to addressing NEET could be developed.

This authoritative book examines current trends in divorce throughout the world, analyzing hitherto inaccessible information on Asian and Arab countries and Eastern Europe, as well as data from Latin America, Western Europe, and the Anglo countries. William J. Goode asserts that these trends over the past four decades challenge previous theories, including his own, first offered in his classic World Revolution and Family Patterns. Among the topics Goode discusses are how divorce rates in different countries are affected by industrialization, dictatorship, civic standards for nations, and easier divorce laws; the relations between divorce and such factors as age and class; the meaning of the worldwide rise in cohabitation; and why people are becoming less likely to remarry. In all these divorce systems he points to the problems caused by divorce: how to get child support from ex-husbands, the increase in mother-headed families (even in Arab countries), and the scanty help (if any) governments give to such families. He argues that modern countries with high rates must learn an important lesson from what he calls traditional "stable high-divorce-rate" systems--that divorce is part of the system, and that we must create and support social norms (not only laws) that reduce its harsh effects.